The Bombay High Court on Monday said "Why should people travelling on the Mumbai-Goa Highway, for the purpose of Ganapati festival be only entitled for pothole free roads, otherwise also roads should be in good condition."
A division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Riyaz Chagla, made this statement while hearing a public interest litigation filed by Advocate Owais Pechkar, highlighting the problems of potholes, on NH-66. Advocate Nisha Mehra appearing for the government, filed two reports highlighting that the highways was divided into regions and over 350 kilo meters is manned by the State. She further said that around 45 KM road is found to have potholes, and work of filling them up is ongoing at present and would be completed before the Ganapati festival.
It was also mentioned in the report that at a patch between Indapur and Chiplun area, only 7.50 Km road has potholes, of which 5.5 km road repair work is done. Thus it was remarked in the affidavit that the percentage of potholes is very much low and traffic is moving smoothly. The bench though took objection to the comment and said "We don't know the concept of low and high potholes area.We have not seen (travelled),the road personally, but is such a statement correct."
Considering the urgency of the matter, the court has posted it for further hearing on July 31, when it has asked the state government and the National Highways Authority of India, (NHAI) which is in charge of the upkeep of the highway between Panvel to Indapur, to state, what steps it is taking to ensure pothole free roads. What is the supervising mechanism to ensure contractors fill the potholes and repair roads on regular basis.
Pechkar in his plea has claimed that festival of Ganesh Chaturthi is approaching in the month of September, where many people will be commuting towards Konkan region, through the NH-66, which will increase heavy traffic on the highway. But due to such bad conditions of roads, it will cause grievous harm to the health and life of the commuters at large.
Further, the plea says that Contract to widening of the highway was given in 2011 but even in 2018, it is yet to be completed. Due to lack of maintenance of NH -66 by the National Highways Authority of India and State Government, it is leading to huge harm and injury to the life of the common public. Thus it violates the fundamental rights under articles 14, 21 of Constitution of India.
The plea prays that appropriate orders be passed to the authorities, to maintain the NH-66 by fixing/filling up the potholes, starting from Palaspe Panvel Raigad- Chiplun-Ratnagiri- Dodamarg Sindhudurg before the start of Ganesh Chathurti Festival season.
STATE OF NH-66
- A 45-km-long stretch on the highway has potholes, repair work to fill them up going on at present and would be completed before onset of the Ganesh festival
- The Bombay High Court asked the State and NHAI to list out steps and effective measures it is taking or has taken to ensure pothole-free roads
